With an only two-game slate, both favourites and Conferences leaders surprisingly lost playing at home
NBA underdogs night
Thursday basketball night yesterday (30) had only two games but with the best teams in the league playing. However, it was the underdogs night in the NBA as the two best teams and conference leaders lost their games at home. Check out now a quick recap of what happened in both games on yesterday’s slate.
Boston Celtics 140-99 Milwaukee Bucks
Starting off the NBA underdogs night we had the Boston Celtics keeping alive the fight for the Eastern Conference title. And what a way to do that, with a surprising blowout. Playing on the road, Boston (now the second-best team in the league) didn’t give a chance for the Bucks and basically won the game in the third quarter.
The Boston Celtics won all four periods of the game and they simply opened a 40-point advantage before the last quarter. So the Bucks benched their best players to rest for the upcoming games. In the end, 14 Milwaukee players played at least seven minutes. Giannis Antetokounmpo, with 24 points, was the team’s top scorer.
On the winners’ side, another great performance from the duo Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Together they scored 70 points. Tatum was the game’s top scorer with 40 points and eight rebounds, while Brown had 30 points.
New Orleans Pelicans 107-88 Denver Nuggets
Another huge surprise was the Denver Nuggets’ loss the way it happened. If the Bucks’ loss could be explained by the quality of their opponents, the same doesn’t apply here. The Pelicans were only the #9 seed in the West (now they climb up to #7) and also didn’t give a chance to the home team.
MVP favourite Nikola Jokić didn’t play yesterday but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have a triple-double on the night. Pelicans’ Brandom Ingram scored 31 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, being also the game’s top scorer. Jonas Valančiūnas had himself a double-double, with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
On the losers’ side, Jamal Murray had the best individual performance, with 21 points and seven assists. The Nuggets are still fighting for the Conference title and the Pelicans are closer to the playoffs now.
